It takes time ......

CCI Elections 2017

#CCIElections2017 Please Vote 4 Kekoo Nicholson, Gulshan Rai, Janak Madhavdas & Umesh Katre. Warm Regards Rajiv Bhatia

Trust all is well with the World. ~humph~

Dear All

Its been a while. Trust all is well with the World. ~humph~

The calendar in 2017 has moved along very quickly. DeMoney in the last quarter of 2016, new highs on the bourses, GST & RERA being new laws enacted, most MSMEs facing a slowdown, the investment climate being one of trepidation and concern, the Center constantly providing visions of future hope and a general political domination. With digitalisation as the buzzword, I find myself reworking my office with my increased involvement in IT - Desktop, Network & Web Administration (Hosted & Cloud). My favourite pass time is now a compulsion. The pace of learning has been rapid and new resources and approaches have been identified and are being adopted.

North East Development, of any relevant proportion, continues to be elusive. As I presented at the Namami Brahmaputra Road Show in Mumbai;

The Root Cause of tardy progress of the North East region, holds all responsible:

* Central Govt. - Unable to gain the confidence of the people. Resources have not been reaching the grass roots.
* State & Local Govt. - Inefficient. Unable to play the role of an effective hub between the Center and the people.
* People of the rest of India - Lack of knowledge. Descendants of the `Munims’ of the British Raj exploitative of the people. Opportunists from the North only interested in subsidies and `taking away’, not giving.
* People of North East India - Disorganised. Lack skills. Deficient in managing Projects. Lack of strong leadership required to cultivate social and commercial enterprise.
* Resulting opportunities for the Western Region to Partner in NER progress. EWI Development Initiative Foundation, a facilitating Sec 8 Company. (come join us)

Things haven't changed much, so far. Hopefully with a District wide Development Agenda being set-up in some of the Backward Districts of  the North East, some bright green shoots may show up before the end of this  fiscal. Food Entrepreneurship and Contract Based Production are likely to be the key drivers. It all depends on how locals subscribe to collective process and the leadership provided by the Steering Committees. The deficits include limitations in warehousing and logistics.

There are some early stage star entrepreneurs back home (Western Region)   who have come my way in the  recent past. Theirs' looks good. Lets see how things go and how involved I get. Some kids from the African continent seem interested too. More at http://www.rajivbhatia.in and http://instamojo.com/rajivbee

Club's elections will come up in the next few months. Continuance of old wine in recycled bottles, at best. Boss, change the approach ! I live in hope. (OD)

My daughter is doing well with her designer merchandise product sales. Art assignments too. http://www.maitreyibhatia.in and http://instamojo.com/monkibusiness.

Golf is nowhere on the cards and  unfortunately meeting up with school and childhood friends too. Missed my class 35th reunion with my mind soaked in a quest for rural remedy.

Here's hoping for a Happy Independence Day 15.08.17 and more radical policy implementation asap to follow.

Do catch up some time. Lets make the 100 sq ft around us a happier place. Oh, and please don’t cut trees !

Best regards

Rajiv

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year 2017 !

Count DeMonEy

Today's Times Of India 13.12.16, some good stuff related to `Count DeMonEy'

1) PhonePe needs aggressive promotion www.npci.org.in Mr. Hoda says that Advt. budgets are small compared to PayTm. Click Here

2) Bhagwati says "Although the process is inconvenient, and subjects many households to hardships, it forces the cash from the black economy to be deposited into the banking system, potentially increasing transparency and expanding the tax base and revenues to the government from taxes and surcharges." I thought it was white money cash that was being redeposited in banks, in the `note badli' scheme and that old black money cash was either consigned to flames or had hit the river bed?   Click Here

3) Cyber Crime issues in an increasing digitized economy certainly merits attention. Click Here

Happy Diwali !

AGM and Annual Elections Day at CCI. May us members win !

Fellow Members of  CCI

Its AGM and Annual Elections Day. Let us celebrate our club and the joy that we are privileged to have from being members of the club and friends of each other. Let us celebrate the good fortune of having democratic rights to vote in our representatives to manage our club as trustees. Let us celebrate our AGM as an opportunity to assess and analyse the Governance and Transparency in managing our club and if  dissatisfied, to  make an ask for more. Without doubt we do have causes to be happy and enjoy this weekend.

The latest excitement has arisen from an email blast promoting the candidature of a Presidential and EC candidate. It appears that this has been sent by a regular service provider to the club who has inadvertently sent the email blast from a club registered domain email account. A large number of members are annoyed by such alleged `misuse of the club’s machinery’  for canvassing and desire that the candidate be disqualified. Some members are willing to take the matter to court, if required.

What has happened is most unfortunate. However what may follow may be deliberate and determined acts of aggression, which, given an acceptance of the first paragraph above, would destroy the essence of our good fortune. The anger stems less from technical fault and more from mistrust and groupism existing between members. Any opportunity is sought to make battle cries.

It is  without doubt that the club’s service provider and domain emails should not be used for personal campaigns. However there seem to be no provisions in the election guidelines and procedures regarding this and nor are there provisions for violation. Why would courts want  to entertain such matters, related to the internal Governance of the club, which has been seriously wanting for some time now.

There seems no reason to disqualify the candidate in question. However a monetary fine may be  considered.

Without doubt the candidate is in the list of  members (candidates) I support at this election. But ONLY for  the post of  Executive Committee member. And I continue to support him as such.

I have a different choice for President though. A man who has fearlessly and with a large heart absorbed or brushed away with panache, undesirable offensives by his colleagues on the Executive Committee and some members, over the past two years. Surely a man’s affections cannot be held against him? EC members must respect each other as elected candidates as they  represent the members who have elected them. And the club does belong to all of us members !

There has been one big looser all along. The father of the lady. A man who has had no hesitation in attempting to dilute his daughters grace in public glare. A man who has shown little respect  for his `girl child’. One who considers his  ego above his daughter. A man so fickle as to be mislead by deliberate & self seeking mis-guidance. For the elections will be over but the pain caused to his family will take for ever to heal. One must feel sorry for him. May the lord forgive him for he knows not what he does.

At dawn today I hope and pray for good Governance at CCI through the dynamic process of Organisational Development. I am glad to see that EC candidate Suresh Bafna has mentioned this in his latest email to members. But then his and my friend Vineet Naik had mentioned it too, last year. What happened ?

with warm regards

Rajiv